My good friend, and Libertarian fellow traveller, John Staddon gives the straight dope on traffic signs in the U.S.
For the rest of the story, including a link to J-Stad's Atlantic Monthly article, "Distracting Ms. Daisy, check this out.
(Lagniappe: J-Stad on smoking....)
3 comments:
One good but less-than-obvious reason for some four-way stops: if a driver stopped on the smaller road has only limited visibility onto the larger cross-street, then it may not be possible to proceed safely if the traffic on that larger street is not also stopping.
I think 4-way stop signs are still better than red-lights. At least they encourage cooperation among the various drivers at the intersection.
Dirty Davey gave a reason for refiguring the intersection into a round-about. Signs are put in as an afterthought or to avoid the expense of doing it right.
I see one justification for a 4-way stop: as a temporary measure to safely break up habits of regular drivers. Further changes would be pending.
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